Anders Behring Breivik trial ends with walkout by survivors

Anders Behring Breivik has called on a Norwegian court to acquit him of the murder of 77 people he has admitted killing as families of his victims walked out during his final remarks at the end of a ten-week trial.

He has admitted carrying out the attacks but denied criminal responsibility, saying the attacks were in self-defence against what he saw as the takeover of Europe by Muslims, making his sanity the key issue for the trial.

‘That little, safe Norway would be hit by such a terror attack is almost impossible to understand,’ chief defence lawyer Geir Lippestad told Oslo District Court, offering his explanation for why two pre-trial psychiatric assessments had reached different conclusions on Breivik.

Yesterday prosecution lawyers called on Breivik to be declared insane and committed to psychiatric care.

With Breivik not pleading guilty that left his lawyers with little choice but to seek his acquittal.

On July 22 2011 Breivik set off a car bomb in the Norwegian capital’s government district, killing eight, before opening fire at a Labour Party youth camp on the nearby island of Utoya, killing 69 people, mostly teenagers.

Judges announced at the end of a trial that they would deliver a verdict on August 24.